St. Mary’s Freshman Takes On His Teachers Over the Pledge of Allegiance

…[T]he freshman at Leonardtown High School in St. Mary’s County, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland and his principal, yesterday taught his teachers a lesson in free speech and reinforced his right to abstain from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at school.

Theodore became upset this year when, he said, a friend in his homeroom was “reprimanded” by the teacher for remaining seated during the pledge. The teacher, according to Theodore, said that she had a brother in the military in the Middle East and that it was disrespectful to his sacrifice not to stand.

“I thought, ‘We have to research this,’ ” said Theodore, an honor roll student.

Without telling his principal, Theodore — with help from his father — wrote to several First Amendment organizations, including the ACLU of Maryland, to find out what rights students have. As it happened, the ACLU was already on the case. At least four students in three public school systems — St. Mary’s, Baltimore and Prince George’s counties — had reported being forced to either stand or say the pledge although they wanted to abstain, said ACLU of Maryland lawyer Richard Griffiths.

“It was a succession of all of these pledge things from around the state that made us stop and say maybe we should try to get everybody on the same page about what the law says,” Griffiths said. So the ACLU contacted school system superintendents in every county in Maryland, as well as the state Department of Education.

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